Daniel Jacobs vs. Sergiy Derevyanchenko done deal for November 10

By Boxing News - 08/02/2018 - Comments

Image: Daniel Jacobs vs. Sergiy Derevyanchenko done deal for November 10

By Jim Dower: Daniel Jacobs (34-2, 29 KOs) and Sergiy Derevyanchenko (12-0, 10 KOs) is now official for November 10 for the vacant IBF middleweight title on HBO, according to ESPN. Jacobs-Derevyanchenko will be the headliner fight. The undercard still hasn’t been put together at this time.

Jacobs will be facing Derevyanchenko for the International Boxing Federation 160-pound title that was stripped from GGG on June 6 after he failed to commit to a title defense against IBF mandatory Derevyanchenko by the August 4 date the sanctioning body wanted him to. GGG has bigger fish to fry with a rematch against Saul Canelo Alvarez on September 15, so he wasn’t about to take the low-paying Derevyanchenko fight on August 4 instead of putting together the rematch with the popular red-headed Golden Boy Promotions star.

The venue for the fight isn’t a done deal yet, but they’re looking at having the fight take place at the Nassau Veterans Memorial Coliseum in Uniondale, New York. Is good for that the fight is finally done, but the downside is the boxing fans have to wait another three months before the bout takes place. Jacobs will have been out of the ring for seven months by the time he faces Derevyanchenko on November 10.

For his part, Derevyanchenko will have been out of action for eight month when he battles the 31-year-old Jacobs. For two fighters in the prime of their careers, you’d like to see them fighting every four months instead of seeing them have a large gap of two-thirds of the year.

Jacobs fought at the Nassau Veterans Memorial Coliseum last year in November in beating Luis Arias by a 12 round unanimous decision. It was an easy fight for Jacobs. In Jacobs’ last fight, he defeated Maciej Sulecki by a 12 round unanimous decision on April 28. Jacobs’ fight against Derevyanchenko will be his third fight of his contract with HBO. It’s unclear whether Jacobs’ promoter Eddie Hearn will keep hm with HBO or if he’ll stick his future fights in the States on DAZN so that he can try and bring in a lot of subscribers.

If HBO wants to keep Jacobs’ fights on their network, they can always give him a big offer to renew his contract. It will likely depend on how Jacobs looks against Derevyanchenko. Jacobs looked poor against Arias in fighting a safety first fight last year in winning a wide 12 round decision. Jacobs’ last fight against Sulecki was a lot more interesting to watch. It was Sulecki that made it interesting to watch due to the high pressure that he was putting on Jacobs. Sulecki showed no respect for Jacobs’ punching power in the fight.

The winner of Jacobs-Derevyanchenko has an outside chance of facing the Saul Canelo Alvarez vs. Golovkin winner. Jacobs’ promoter Eddie Hearn is hoping that the Canelo-GGG2 winner will give him a shot against one of them, but it’s unclear if they will Jacobs isn’t a big star. His fight with GGG last year brought in only a small number of PPV buys on HBO.